Theresa Bigler’s case is the first to go to trial in the U.S. stemming from a series of deadly superbug outbreaks across the country that were linked to contaminated medical scopes. She is suing Olympus Corp., claiming that one of its tainted devices caused the infection that led to her husband’s death in August 2013.

The deadly pattern of illnesses began to emerge in 2012 at hospitals in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Chicago. In each case, the culprit was a bacteria known as CRE, perhaps the most feared of superbugs, because it resists even "last defense" antibiotics — and kills up to 40% of the people it infects.

From United States Department of Veterans Affairs: On March 23, 2016 the National Program Office for Sterile Processing put out a directive (attached) to all Veterans Health Facilities around the country. The directive was issued by David J. Shulkin, M.D., the Under Secretary for Health. The directive provides procedures for the decontamination, high-level disinfection (HLD), [...]

New York Assemblyman David Weprin, Bill Drake of the Esophageal Cancer Awareness Association and David Schwartz of Citizens for Safe Endoscopy gather at the medical office where comedian Joan Rivers died as a result of an unsafe procedure.

Members of Citizens for Safe Endoscopy flocked to Yorkville Endoscopy on the Upper East Side, where the Joan Rivers went into cardiac arrest during minor throat surgery in September 2014, to demand that doctors tell patients about a safer procedure.

From Bloomberg: The report, from Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, blames device manufacturers, hospitals, and the Food and Drug Administration for infections that sickened at least 250 people worldwide since 2012 and that may have contributed to dozens of deaths. The series of outbreaks went on for years before safety problems with the endoscopes came to [...]